Urgent Action Needed to Protect Australian Children from Rising Vape Poisoning Cases, Study Finds
More action is needed to protect Australian children from accidental vape poisoning, as new study shows that toddlers make up over half of all cases.
This study, released this month in the International Journal of Drug Policy, looked at e-cigarette incidents reported to the Victorian Poisons Information Centre from January 2017 to September 2023.
The study found 547 contact cases, and 83% of them were accidental.
Toddlers made up 56.1% of exposures, adults 26.9%, infants 8.6%, children 5.5%, and teenagers 2.9%.
Out of 137 cases, 25% needed to be sent to the hospital. About 20% were rated as having light poisoning, seven cases were moderate, and two were fatal.
Over the past six years, Australia changed its vaping laws. In 2021, new rules were put in place that made it illegal to buy nicotine vaping goods from foreign websites unless you have a prescription.
This law change greatly affected vape poisonings in Australia.
The study showed that in the two years before and after the law changes in October 2021, there were 461 exposures in total: 103 happened before the change and 358 occurred after.
From October 2019 to September 2021, the average number of monthly cases was only three. However, from October 2021 to September 2023, it jumped to 15 cases per month.
It’s not surprising that the 2021 law couldn’t stop the increase in vaping because it was hard to police. Researchers stated.
Nicotine e-cigarettes can be mistaken for non-nicotine ones. This means that even with the laws from 2021, people might import them without saying they contain nicotine, causing an increase in illegal devices.
The detection of illegal goods was made harder because there wasn’t a single national plan, and each state handled enforcement on its own.
Research shows that there is a growing problem with vaping in Australia. The number of people aged 14 and older who have vaped in the past year rose from 2.5% in 2019 to 7% in 2022-23.
In October 2024, new laws were passed that let people who are 18 and older buy nicotine vapes with 20 mg/mL or less from a chemist without needing a prescription.
You need a prescription from a doctor or nurse for nicotine levels over 20 mg/mL and for anyone under 18 years old.
Even with new smoking laws being introduced, people are still ignoring the rules, and the demand for vaping products keeps growing.
Earlier this month, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) fined 20 retail stores in Melbourne a total of $396,000 for illegally selling vaping products.
In the past year, Australian Border Force and the TGA have taken over seven million vaping goods.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Professor Tarun Weeramanthri, said that illegal vapes can have many harmful chemicals that can hurt your health if you inhale them often.
These chemicals pose a serious health risk to people using them, which is why there are strict rules about who can make, bring in, and sell vapes.
The researchers of the study say that more should be done to protect at-risk Australians from vape poisonings.
Researchers found that toddlers are especially at risk, so they recommend educational programs for parents.